The Unofficial Blogger of the Chicago Cubs in Canada

Cubs Lose Tough One, Go To Game 5 Winner Take All

It wasn’t supposed to go this far in the NLDS, the Chicago Cubs were supposed to stomp all over the Nationals and go forth to defend their NLCS title. But we know that this is the Chicago Cubs and the weather patterns and nail biting have commenced this October. Leave it to a rain delay and a last minute pitching change by Dusty Baker to set the tone for last night’s make up game. There’s going to be the would have, should haves and could have beens in the 5-0 defeat but instead, the Cubs and the Nationals will meet tonight in a do or go home situation in Washington.

“It’s not ideal, but now the series is tied with the decisive Game 5 coming up tomorrow,” Chicago starter Jake Arrieta said. “We like our chances — as long as Strasburg isn’t on the mound, we’ll be all right.”

You have to love Arrieta’s wryness but Strasburg wasn’t supposed to be pitching yesterday, in fact by rights, the game should have had Tanner Roark on the mound and the game should have been played Tuesday early afternoon before the rain. That didn’t happen and the past is the past.

“We just have to be offensively a little bit better tomorrow,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. “They have been really good. We have been really good. Listen, they got a grand slam. Otherwise, it’s kind of like the same game both sides.”

There we have it, tonight it’ll be Kyle Hendricks up against whoever the heck Dusty Baker decides to throw in. Hendricks has been here before. The NLCS last year that sent the Cubs to the World Series. This is the most important game of Hendricks life, well not including game 7 of the World Series. Ok, so this is the second most important game of Hendricks life. Then again, this is what they’re paid for; these situations.

“You know what the atmosphere is going to be like. You know what the crowd is going to be like,” Kyle Hendricks said. “All those external factors, if you can kind of keep that under control, you know the pitching part. You know what to do once you get out on the mound. Being able to control all those external factors, I think, is going to be huge. Yeah, it will help me out. At the end of the day, it’s just about making good pitches. That’s where I need to mentally prepare, go out when it’s Game 5 and just make good pitches.”

If there is any other pitcher the Cubs have in their arsenal for tonight’s game, this is the guy they want to go to the mound with.

“We have all the confidence in that guy,” shortstop Addison Russell said. “He goes about his business in such a way where, if you just watch him work, the confidence is there. It builds confidence throughout this team. We’re really happy to have him out there.”